Seeing with Sayings: The Visual Impact of Proverbs and Refrains in La Celestina

Abstract

Many proverbs, paremias or adages are used in Celestina as part of perlocutionary speech acts, i.e. used to influence the actions or thoughts of another person. In order to achieve this effect, many of the proverbs uttered contain a strong visual ingredient. The speech acts of almost all of the characters of La Celestina are fraught with implied or real danger, and are often delivered through the seemingly inoffensive medium of paroemias. Proverbs and refrains frequently function as subversive reminders that their audiences, both inside and outside of the text, need to be constantly on guard in processing the words spoken by the devious and self-interested main characters. The article includes a table with paroemias from Celestina and their original form in the inventories of these utterances.